Your Fault
by insaneshadowfangirl
Summary: Jack Frost has lost the will to live, and when Death comes to take him from his suffering, she has to deal with blame-ducking Guardians and her own turmoil of the past. But she's in a foul mood, and certainly there's enough of it to go around. Warning: Character death. Complete, unless I get enough people wanting a bit more on Death or perhaps more Guardian reactions.


Insane: ANGST WARNING! Also, I don't own RotG.

~! #$%^&*()-

She felt rage flow through her, rage she hadn't felt since the Black plague _(Hasn't since her own desperate attempt at getting Believers...)_

"This is _your_ fault! Not mine!"

The thrice-damned rodent - that FUCKING rabbit - Snorted. "_Our fault? _You Ki-"

"I DID MY MOTHERFUCKING JOB, ASTER! UNLIKE YOU FOUR!" Her eyes filled with tears..._ (You failed again...)_

~! #$%^&*()-

"My Queen? You may want to take a look at this..."

Angel Pureheart, more commonly known as Death, looked at the terrified Reaper in front of her. She glanced at her brother, Pitch Black, who held up his hands in innocence. He hadn't a clue what had the normally tough Reaper this scared.

"What's wrong, soldier?"

He shuffled his feet before holding out a Life Orb. Angel recognized the soft green tone as belonging to an Immortal. It was still large, indicating the boy - for she could _feel_ it was a boy - was around fourteen. But what caught her attention was the _dimness_ of the orb _(dim, like hope gone out...)_

"An Immortal? Dying?" Pitch asked.

"No..." Angel whispered. "More like... Given up." She whimpered. "I don't know if I can do this alone. Watch with me, Pitch?"

One nod later had her taking his hand in hers before accepting the Orb from her Reaper.

Then, the siblings were whisked into memories that did not belong to them...

~! #$%^&*()-

"How _dare_ you accuse _us_ of not doing our jobs!" The shrill voice of that glittery, tooth-obsessed bitch assulted her eardrums.

For a woman used to her brother's cool tones and her husband's near-monotone _(The comfort of her family... She wants to go back. Damn, why'd she insist on doing this part alone?),_ it could've been considered torture. She ignored the ringing in her ears and glared. "Are you always this stupid, or have you been saving it just for me?"

~! #$%^&*()-

They land within a clearing in a small forest. A beautiful lake is before them, and she can hear her own voice ringing in her ears.

**"Jackson Overland Frost. Life two; Immortal."**

She looks at Pitch, confused. "The Overland Frost boy? But... I didn't give him another life. I sent him to Paradise for sacrificing himself for his sister!"

Pitch's eyes darken, just as her own do upon the realization.

Someone had interfered with HER work.

And she had a fair idea whom.

Fucking _moon._

The child's head broke the surface of the gorgeous lake, and she hissed in anger.

Once-brown hair was now a snowy white, and once brown eyes were blue as ice. MiM had turned the child into a winter pixie.

She heard his voice as she'd heard her own, not from his mouth but the air around them.

**"The first thing I remember is darkness. I woke up, and it was dark, and I was scared. But then I saw the Moon, and I wasn't scared anymore. My name is Jack Frost. How do I know? The Moon told me so. But that's all he ever did."**

As the boy watched the rock in the sky with undeserved awe _(she'd felt it once, too...)_, he was unaware of the red light of a spell surrounding him and then vanishing.

But both Pitch and Angel saw.

"That _Bastard!_" Angel swore, before whirling to her brother. "Do you know what that _did? ! ?_"

He nodded grimly. "It blocked the knowledge of this child's existence from ANYone who would care for him or take him in... Aside from the Guardians."

~! #$%^&*()-

"Nyet!" The Russian asshole snapped. "Do not speak to her that way!"

Angel slammed her golden-bladed scythe into the ground, embedding the ruby handle a good two inches into the frosted ground and instantly killing a few unfortunate woodland critters.

"Dammit." She mumbled. "I hate it when that happens."

~! #$%^&*()-

The first time he is walked through, she bursts into tears. It is heartbreaking to watch the confusion and pain (_like being stabbed in the chest, she knows_) on the boy's face as he tries to understand. There is anger as well, fury that MiM would force a child to find out he was little more than a ghost in that manner. Where was the guidance, the love he clearly needed and so obviously deserved? _(Why would he do it again? Bastard...)_

She knew better than most that the Man in Moon was a cruel monster. But this was possibly the worst she'd seen of him... (_What about what he'd done to her?)_ As she watches him bawl, sobbing in misery, she doesn't want to believe it can get worse. _(Wishing doesn't make it so...)_

~! #$%^&*()-

The Sandman - The most tolerable of them, she believes - Is as clueless as the rest, a sandy '?' floating above his head. _(how can he NOT know? How? ! ? ! ? ! ?)_ It takes all of her willpower not to slap him.

~! #$%^&*()-

She spends the entire time watching Jack Frost's life clinging to her brother _(tries not to get caught in her own memories)_ alternating between sobbing and swearing. She'd promised him Paradise, and _(thanks to the Man in the Fucking Moon) _he'd gotten a living Hell for over two hundred years. Two hundred years alone, unseen by humans and belittled by Immortals. _(Oh, and she KNOWS how much it hurts...)_ The Rabbit's comments are particularly biting, leaving the boy with tears that are held in until he is again alone. _(don't let them see you cry... then they win.)_

She watches years go by in a instant, increasingly desperate attempts to be noticed fail and often get him hurt. _(why don't they see? ! ?) _ She sees him play with large groups of kids, trying to feel a part of the group when none can see him, _(I'm right here! Please! Why won't you see me! I'm so alone! I just want to play!) _watches him scream at the Moon, begging for an answer, a sign of what to do_ (What am I doing wrong? Why can only the Dying see me! ?)_ and then curl into a ball and sob himself to sleep when he is ignored yet again.

And very rarely did the Sandman deign to visit the child, and so most nights he only had the company of nightmares of his mind's own making.

And then, barely three days earlier, Easter Sunday of 1868, when he'd simply burst into tears after being walked through one too many times and lost control of his powers, being beaten within an inch of his life and left unconscious in the snow by a supposed Guardian of the children. He'd woken up this morning, heavily injured and without the will to live.

~! #$%^&*()-

She is near boiling point, and unsurprisingly, it is Bunnymund that lights her fuse. _(Aster, it was ALWAYS Aster.)_

"Look, lady. I'm sure the troublemaker's little hissy fit would've passed if you hadn't come and taken him!"

She feels more than sees the black seeping into her hair, dress, and eyes, the talons growing out of her hand, and the red aura now surrounding her.

_"HISSY FIT? **HISSY FIT! ? ! ! YOU THINK HE WAS THROWING A HISSY FIT? !** ?"_

She gets no pleasure out of the fear now rolling off the rabbit in waves. She wishes she didn't need to explain, that they'd know what they did wrong _(that they weren't so DAMN loyal tho the Bastard-in-the-Space-Rock and blind to other's suffering...)_

She reaches into her dress pocket and pulled out the now-blackened Life Orb. She pumped enough of her Magic into it so they'd be forced to see and endure all he had.

It was only an instant to her, but it would be over two hundred long years for the Guardians.

~! #$%^&*()-

She fell back into her own reality barely a split-second after being sucked into the life of a lonely sprite. The only difference to her appearance was the fact she was sobbing. She quickly wiped her eyes and grabbed her scythe, slicing a portal to lead to Jack Frost.

As she arrives in the little clearing and sees the boy curled on the shore of the lake _(wanting to be freed from his hell)_, she feels a pair of large white wings blossom out of her back, and smiles sadly at her powers' natural way of coming for children. She steps to the boy, well aware that the only reason she can find him or see him is do to the fact that he is ready to die.

"Hello, Jack..." She whispered.

Dull blue eyes stare up at her, and a soft intake of breath is heard. "You're an angel...?" His voice is weak.

With no hesitation, she pulls the touch-starved child into her arms. "Oh, yes, Jack, but I'm more than that. I'm YOUR angel. Specially for you."

"For... me?" The boy has never been given anything, not even hope. She feels tears well in her eyes.

"Oh... don't cry, Miss Angel..." Jack whimpers. "I'm sorry..."

She hugs him, feeling slowly warming skin under her hands and arms.

"Miss Angel?" His voice is tentative. "Can... will you... make the hurt go away?" She knows he's not speaking of the many physical wounds littering his small, too-thin frame.

"Of course." She whispers, trying not to cry. "Now, Jack. I want you to go to sleep. When you wake up, everything will be all better..." He nods so eagerly it hurts. With a slightly shaking voice, Death began to sing,

_"Hush now, Quiet now,_

_Everything's alright,_

_Hush now, quiet now,_

_ I can see your light..._

_Hush now, quiet now,_

_Lay your head down,_

_Hush now, quiet now,_

_Nevermore shall you frown..."_

His eyes are drifting shut, and she can feel him fading away. When Life stops flowing and his Orb goes dark, she personally gathers the spirit of a child who never should've suffered this much into her arms and personally takes him to Paradise, where a little girl with brown hair, brown eyes and a sweet smile waits for him.

When she comes back, she discovers that MiM has sent his lapdogs after her.

~! #$%^&*()-

When they emerge from the Orb's pull a moment later, the reactions are mixed.

The rabbit is staring at her, horrorstruck.

The glittery bitch is bawling.

The Sandman looks depressed.

The Russian looks ready to vomit.

And as Angel turns around, ready to go home and cry at last, she hits them with one parting barb.

"I told you this was your fault."


End file.
